What do you focus on? Are you focused on your troubles and ambitions or is your focus on Christ?
In today’s world too many believers are self-centered. They do not view the world from God’s perspective but there own. Their daily lives and prayers are dominated not by a thankful attitude but by a self-centered focus.
It is more of an attitude of what are you going to do for me today God? Most if not all of their prayers revolve around requests for things such as health, material blessings, light traffic so they won’t be late, things that will bring them status like good grades, promotion at work etc. They pray about anything and everything that will make their life better or easier.
Changing Your Focus
The catalyst required to change from a self-centered attitude to a thankful attitude is to understand God’s love for us. This is a theme that is repeated over and over in the bible.
Once we understand God’s love, we will not only appreciate what God accomplished on the cross but that will become our focus. We will strive to love God with all your heart and to glorify God in everything we do. Soon we will no longer demand things from God but will look to serve him.
Deu 6:5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
1Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Romans 15:6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God Sacrificed His Son for You
God out of love was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so he could restore fellowship with you. Your sin separated you from Him. It cost him dearly to redeem you; The blood of His Son. God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. Through this act of God we are given eternal life and all the spiritual blessings. God held nothing back.
Out of love God has given your everything. He has given your eternal life. Our time on earth is short. Earth is not our home but heaven is and that is why we should have a heavenly perspective and keep our focus on Christ.
Demonstrate our Love
As believers one of the primary ways we can demonstrate our love is by the study of God’s word and by going to God in prayer and thanking Him for all He has accomplished through Christ in our behalf. By doing this we gain a better knowledge of Christ and what an incredible sacrifice He made for us; one who was at enmity with God.
You cannot love someone you know nothing about. By studying God’s word and then thanking Him for the mercy He showed us, it reinforces what we have learned through the Holy Spirit and makes those truths that much more meaningful.
By continually learning and thanking God for the love He showed, you will truly learn to appreciate the God of the Bible, not man’s image of “God”. For to know God is to love God.
Secondly, God is glorified by believers going into the world with the good news of God’s grace demonstrated at Calvary. We are to go to the whole world with the news that Christ died for our sins.
Glorify God
Scripture teaches us to love God with all our heart and to glorify God. It does not teach us to make ourselves our own gods, or to serve ourselves, or to lead a comfortable and pain free life.
—Romans 15:5–6 NKJV “Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
—1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Keep your Focus on Christ
Keep your focus on Christ and appreciate the love of Christ and what that love accomplished on our behalf at the cross. If you do so you can not help but to develop a thankful attitude toward God which will reflect in your daily life.
This thankful attitude will should also carry over to your prayer life. Your communications with God should be dominated with thanksgiving as well as requests to help you better understand the full knowledge of God’s Word, so that you will be better equipped to go into the world for God.
Glorify God by being an ambassadors for Christ. Go willing to the world telling them about the love of God, which was demonstrated through Christ at the cross.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We are so rich in Christ; there is nothing else we need or could possess. We are made complete in Christ. If you spent everyday of your life searching the scriptures for all the riches you have in Christ, you would only touch the tip of the iceberg of the wealth we posses. We have a glorious future waiting for us with Christ in the heavens.
Until we die, or are raptured, while on earth we need to serve God by doing His work not ours. I hope the truth of God’s love will help you to focus your daily living and prayer life on God and not yourselves.